…We have placed your manuscript on our publication calendar in the next available slot and have assigned it the ISBN 9781945181573. As things stand now, it looks like publication will be near April 21, 2019. We should begin work on the manuscript about a month before that. In the meantime, as you suggest, it’s not too early to start thinking about what you’d like for a cover. We’d be pleased to hear your ideas and if you come across any interesting images, let us know.

It seems unbearably far in the future, but I’ve waited longer for some of my books to be published.

Huzzah! I just signed a contract with a small publishing house, Moonshine Cove Publishing LLC., to produce the second installment of my Carrie Bloomfield Novel series called “The Allston Variant.” (The first in the series is “The Winship Affair”). I’m hoping the novel may be available for purchase on Amazon and elsewhere before year’s end.

Here’s a synopsis:

When scientists recover a deadly bacterium from the partially thawed permafrost of Alaska’s Northern Slope, the ancient pathogen kills the team members and decimates a small native village before mutating into a harmless version of itself. The U.S. Army moves in to collect samples for further study; the case is marked ‘Top Secret’ and closed. Eighteen years later, Cumulus Industries, a Boston biotechnology company, is tasked with developing a cure for the dangerous bacterium but the U.S. intelligence community soon suspects the company’s executive management of secretly engineering a biological weapon based on the bacterium. It plans to sell the weapon to a shadowy Middle East terrorist organization.

Suspicions are heightened when a Cumulus employee who is an undercover FBI informant mysteriously goes missing. The Bureau decides it must have another informant on the inside. It recruits the brilliant Boston scientist and entrepreneur Carrie Bloomfield who masquerades as Janice Silberman, a newly-hired researcher from Toronto. Silberman is befriended by an exotic and attractive fellow researcher, Argie Khorui. The two become best friends and lovers. But Khouri isn’t who she appears to be.

Bloomfield struggles to remain true to her mission while facing a daunting scientific challenge—the bioweapon is accidentally unleashed upon an unsuspecting Boston populace and Bloomfield must find a cure.

I finished the manuscript for the Winship Affair sequel entitled, “The Allston Variant” and am receiving feedback from readers. I’m now actively seeking a publisher for the book. For the very first time, I’m also shopping around for an agent to help me attract the attention of the top-tier publishers. But I’m not holding my breath.

I’m a little over 20k words on a manuscript for my sequel to “The Winship Affair: a Carrie Bloomfield Novel” a scientific murder-mystery published in 2014 by Blue Mustang Press. This one will be the same genre, I’m calling it “The Allston Variant: a Carrie Bloomfield Novel.”

Phil Temples was born and raised in Bloomington, Indiana, but he’s lived and played in greater Boston, Massachusetts for nearly four decades. His professional career spans the fields of software engineering and computer systems administration. Phil has been employed in the .com, .org, and .edu sectors. For the past 16 years, he’s worked as a computer systems administrator at an area university.

Phil also writes. He’s had over 140 short stories and a novella published in print and online publications. Phil’s first novel, “The Winship Affair,” was published in 2014 by Blue Mustang Press. He has two books out from Big Table Publishing: a short story anthology, “Machine Feelings,” and a paranormal horror-mystery “Helltown Chronicles.” His sequel to The Winship Affair called “The Allston Variant” has been accepted by Moonshine Cove Publishing for a 2019 publication date.

In addition to his writing activities, Phil is a ham radio aficionado, and a singer in a garage band.